This post presents Shim’on Menachem’s poetic and nuanced translation and interpretation of Psalm 126, which is traditionally recited before the Grace After Meals by Ashkekazi Jews on Shabbat, holidays, and other days on which the penitential Tachanun prayer is not recited. According to Menachem, this post-exilic Psalm switches its narrative perspective between before and after the return from Babylon, between gratitude and longing for return, using words associated with joy that are tinged with more complicated emotions. Shimon Menachem, a writer and educator living in St. Louis, Missouri, submitted his work to The Open Siddur Project, an initiative that aims to liberate the creative content of Jewish spiritual practice as a collectively shared resource for students, scholars, artists, and educators to adopt, adapt, and redistribute.
Psalm 126
שִׁיר, הַמַּעֲלוֹת
They used to sing a song
On the steps of the Temple
The very place wiped out,
Put back together
Stone by stone.
בְּשׁוּב יְהוָה, אֶת־שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן– הָיִינוּ, כְּחֹלְמִים
Exile or return.
Which is the dream?
We left something behind
But no one remembers what or where.
אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק, פִּינוּ– וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה
Our mouths are filled with laughter
And a taste of mockery
Our tongues with cries of joy
Tinged by knowing,
Somehow we are still in exile.
אָז, יֹאמְרוּ בַגּוֹיִם– הִגְדִּיל יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת עִם־אֵלֶּה
הִגְדִּיל יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת עִמָּנוּ– הָיִינוּ שְׂמֵחִים
The miracle that people said could never happen
Happened.
We were as surprised as everyone else
Happy and unprepared.
שׁוּבָה יְהוָה, אֶת שְׁבִיתֵנוּ כַּאֲפִיקִים בַּנֶּגֶב
הַזֹּרְעִים בְּדִמְעָה– בְּרִנָּה יִקְצֹרוּ
Mysterious Being,
Return our return.
Restore our restoration.
Bring us back to wherever we started
And we’ll be strong
Like stream beds in the desert
Etched and hard but ready for the flow.
Waters of weeping, saturating
Sprouting cries of joy
Fresh, green.
הָלוֹךְ יֵלֵךְ, וּבָכֹה– נֹשֵׂא מֶשֶׁךְ־הַזָּרַע
בֹּא־יָבֹא בְרִנָּה– נֹשֵׂא, אֲלֻמֹּתָיו
I was the one who trudged along
Sowing my trail of tears
And now I think I’m ready
For the golden sheaths they watered.
תהלים קכו׳ | Psalms 126, a poetic translation by Shim’on Menachem” is shared by Shim’on Menachem with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.